Yes- Many business owners who form an LLC serve as their own registered agent. A registered agent is, essentially, someone who you know will be able to receive mail for you. So, yes, you can be your own registered agent, but you might take into account a few things if you do.
You absolutely must, if you are serving as your own registered agent, make sure that the address you provide is one that you will be able to regularly receive mail at. The registered agent is responsible for the timely receipt of mail, including the service of any court documents or lawsuits. If you live nine months of the year in Wisconsin, and winter for three months in your beach house in Galveston or Corpus Christi, it would not be a very good idea to list your beach house as a registered agent address. If important court documents or pleadings are delivered to your listed registered agent, the court will very rarely give exceptions to you having not received them in a timely fashion.
There are some instances where you won’t really be able to serve as your own registered agent, such as when filing as a “Foreign Entity.” Any time a business operates in a state other than where they are incorporated, that business may have to register as a foreign entity conducting business in that state. Often, those states that require that registration will also require a domestic registered agent with an address within that particular state. As in our previous example, if your Wisconsin LLC does business in Texas, and you are required to register as a foreign entity, you would need a domestic registered agent (and as we previously concluded, this would not be your beach house you are only at three months of the year).
So yes, you may in many circumstances serve as your own registered agent but you will absolutely want to consider some of the factors discussed in this article. If you want to learn more about LLC formation in Texas, or entity management in general, Click Here. If you would like to connect with Texas LLC Formation Attorney Nathaniel Gilbert, Click Here.
